Archive for the ‘Ford SVO Group’ tag

Since its early days, most high-performance production versions of Ford’s evergreen pony car, the Mustang, have been designed to go fast in a straight line, emitting a glorious V-8 soundtrack in the process. In the early 1980s, however, a group of Ford engineers set out to answer a different question: Could a turbocharged four-cylinder Mustang be turned into a world-class sports car?

Led by Michael Kranefuss, Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) team combined a turbocharged version of Ford’s 2.3-liter four-cylinder with a Borg-Warner T5 transmission, shaving 150 pounds off the weight of a V-8-powered Mustang GT, while improving the car’s overall weight distribution in the process. Dampers were procured from Koni, while Goodyear provided sticky Eagle NCT tires, and the Lincoln Versailles Mk VII donated its four-wheel disc brakes. Inside, the shifter was made by Hurst and the car’s brake and accelerator pedal were placed closer together, and with less offset, to allow for heel-toe driving. The end result was the 1984 1/2 Mustang SVO, a car that felt quite European in its manners, yet still delivered the kind of acceleration that Mustang buyers expected.

Of the Mustang SVO, Road & Track said, “This may be the best all-around car for the enthusiast driver ever produced by the U.S. industry.” Car and Driver called it “…an important vehicle, a harbinger of things to come,” while Motor Trend proclaimed it “Bold in concept and intelligent in execution.” Perhaps the most glowing praise of all came from AutoWeek, which said, “All we can say after driving both [the BMW 320i and the Mustang SVO] is ‘No contest’ and ‘Congratulations SVO.’”

If that was the good news, here was the bad: The V-8 Mustang GT still offered better straight-line performance, and was initially priced $6,018 less than the $15,596 Mustang SVO. That made the turbocharged four-cylinder a tough sell for dealers, and a minimal marketing campaign that failed to raise awareness of the unique and highly capable Mustang didn’t help, either. Though prices dropped in the SVO’s second year on the market, the die had already been cast, and the Mustang SVO became just an interesting footnote to Mustang history.

Until 2015, that is. Next year, Ford will once again introduce a turbocharged four-cylinder version of the Mustang, and it will be available with the track-centric Performance Package. Output is said to be “in excess of” 305 horsepower, while the front-to-rear weight balance should give the new Mustang a decidedly sporty feel, ideal for those who favor track days over weekends at the drag strip. It will sticker for less than the eight-cylinder Mustang GT, too, eliminating one more obstacle that stood in the way of the SVO’s success.

For most Ford Mustang enthusiasts, performance variants of the iconic pony car had always been defined by V-8 engines following the credo that, “there’s no replacement for displacement.” While bigger V-8 engines can be better for drag racing, smaller and lighter engines can pay dividends on road courses, where handling and braking are every bit as important as acceleration. At the start of the 1980s, a small group of engineers and designers, led by Michael Kranefuss, endeavored to take the Mustang down a path previously untraveled, with the ultimate goal of turning the Mustang into a world-class sports car. The end product, the Mustang SVO, may not have achieved its lofty goals, but it did serve as an example of what’s achievable when an automaker is allowed to break from convention.

To understand the “how” of the Mustang SVO, it’s first necessary to understand a bit of the “why.” After its inglorious exit from racing in November of 1970, Ford waited a decade before deciding it wanted back into the world of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” Quietly, the automaker created a group called “Special Vehicle Operations,” or SVO for short, which was tasked with returning the automaker to international motorsports. By 1982, Ford was once again funding efforts (and gaining notoriety) in a variety of motorsports, but soon realized that the expenses of racing couldn’t be covered by the profit made from production cars. As Randy Leffingwell explains in his book, Mustang – Forty Years, Kranefuss was tasked with developing a series of high performance, specialty vehicles, from which profits would be diverted to cover racing operations. On paper, it sounded like a great idea, and the SVO team set to work on creating an all-new Mustang model.

As SVO had extensive experience with turbocharged and intercooled variants of Ford’s 2.3-liter four cylinder engine, this was chosen over the existing 5.0-liter V-8 used in the Mustang GT. The group’s rationale for this was simple: Even in de-tuned production form, the turbocharged and intercooled 2.3-liter four could produce horsepower comparable to the larger V-8 while tipping the scales at some 150 pounds less. Less weight beneath the hood also translated to better weight distribution, long considered of critical importance in sports car design. Mated to a reworked Borg-Warner T5 transmission, the lightweight-but-powerful engine promised to deliver a solid foundation for a sporting Mustang. It also had the distinction of being Ford’s first engine with multi-port fuel injection, as well as the first intercooled engine fitted to a U.S. production car.

Funding an independent rear suspension was beyond the group’s means, so a great deal of effort was expended on improving the handling of the live axle pony car. The resulting quad-shock design featured a pair of Koni shocks in a conventional (that is, near-vertical) orientation, with a second pair linking the top of the rear axle to the car’s subframe, virtually eliminating wheel hop under heavy acceleration. Handling was further enhanced with the addition of a rear anti-roll bar measuring 0.67 inches in diameter.

Tire ad wisdom tells us that power is meaningless without control, and SVO engineers realized that the final product would require both dedicated high-performance tires and four-wheel disc brakes. Though Goodyear had just developed its radical new Eagle “Gatorback” performance radial, first-year production was to be exclusive to the new fourth-generation Chevrolet Corvette. As a compromise, Ford opted to use Eagle NCT tires on first-year Mustang SVO models, with the understanding that Goodyear would supply a dedicated “Gatorback” radial (unique to the SVO) for its second model year. Getting four-wheel disc brakes proved to be more of a challenge, and the group was forced to tap the Lincoln parts bin for the setup from the Lincoln Versailles.

Outside, the Mustang SVO’s most distinctive styling elements were its aerodynamic nose and its then-radical biplane rear spoiler. The front design was originally crafted for flush-mounted headlamps, but these were not approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation in time for the car’s launch; a hasty redesign was christened, and the resulting front fascia was designed for use with both sealed beam headlamps and those using fixed housings with replaceable bulbs. Keeping the two-tier rear spoiler proved to be more of a challenge, as many within Ford’s corporate offices viewed the design as the modern equivalent of the Edsel’s grille. While few would object to the design if the Mustang were a success, the belief was that everyone would remember the spoiler if the car turned out to be a failure.

Inside, the SVO group did what it could to make the Mustang seem upscale and more desirable. The standard Mustang seats (which offered little in the way of lateral support) were dropped in favor of deeply bolstered chairs sourced from Lear-Sigler. While the initial plan called for seats from Recaro, these proved far too expensive in the low production volumes (less than 10,000 units per year) that SVO was targeting. Another unique interior feature of Mustang SVO models was a boost limit switch; recognizing that customers may not always be able to tank up with premium (higher octane) gasoline, the SVO engineers gave drivers the ability to select a lower boost setting as conditions warranted. Fueled with 91 octane gasoline, and with the rocker switch in the “Premium” position, the Mustang SVO would allow 10 PSI of boost to 2,500 RPM, then 14 PSI of boost above this engine speed. If just regular gasoline were available, knock sensors would retard ignition timing and limit boost to a maximum of 10 PSI (with the switch set in the “Unleaded” position).

Early in the car’s design phase, plans called for the launch of the Mustang SVO in mid-year 1982, but Ford dropped a (temporary) bombshell when it announced the Mustang would be phased out, replaced by a front-wheel drive sports car built on partner Mazda’s Mazda 6 platform. Though this decision proved short-lived, it delayed the launch of the Mustang SVO until the fall of 1983, as a 1984 model. As the car’s introduction approached, the SVO team realized that launching such a specialized vehicle alongside Ford’s other models would only ensure that it was lost in the ensuing confusion. Instead, plans were made to introduce the Mustang SVO in April of 1984, as a “1984-1/2″ model.

The Mustang SVO hit the market priced at $16,713, some $6,018 more than a base Mustang GT with the 5.0-liter V-8. Performance of the SVO was spirited, with the car capable of running from 0-60 MPH in 7.5 seconds, completing the quarter-mile in 15.5 seconds at 90 MPH. Critics were quick to point out that the V-8-equipped Mustang GT could run from 0-60 MPH in 6.4 seconds, completing the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds, but that missed the point of the car entirely. Unfortunately, few buyers seemed to understand that the Mustang SVO was designed more for road courses (and canyon roads) than drag strips, and dealers sold just 4,508 examples.

For 1985, the Mustang SVO received several key changes, including flush headlights that yielded better looks but virtually no improvement to the car’s coefficient of drag. The big news was likely the car’s increased horsepower (ECU tuning now yielded 205 horsepower, a gain of 30 horsepower from the initial model) and lower price, though other changes included the promised Goodyear Gatorback tires, stiffer rear shock valving, a revised rear axle ratio of 3.73:1, quicker steering and improved fuel economy. While the Mustang GT, priced from $11,553, still represented a bigger performance bargain, the SVO now started at $14,895, meaning the pricing gap between the cars had closed to $3,342. Equally important, the Mustang SVO could now get through the quarter-mile in around 15 seconds at 94 MPH, making it noticeably quicker than the previous model and making its quarter-mile time nearly on par with the Mustang GT’s. Despite the significant improvements and lower price, Ford dealers sold a mere 1,954 examples in 1985.

For 1986, the SVO group dialed back the car’s ECU tuning to an even 200 horsepower (to guard against poor fuel quality issues), but bumped the price back upwards to $15,646. As word spread among racers and sports car enthusiasts, sales of the SVO began to slowly creep upward, and by year end Ford had delivered 3,382 examples to new owners. SVO would prove unable to capitalize on this, as Ford notified its performance division that the Mustang would (once again) be cancelled at the end of the 1986 model year. The promise that the Mustang SVO would beat the BMW 3-Series at its own (well established) game would go unfulfilled.

History tells us that Ford didn’t cancel the Mustang after the 1986 model year, largely due to the UAW pointing out to Ford’s management the potential drawbacks to displacing so many of its members. As to why the Mustang SVO was not more successful in the marketplace, the reasons are, at best, complex and layered. Convinced the car would “sell itself,” once word spread of its performance capabilities, neither SVO nor Ford made much of an effort to market the car or to train dealers in selling the unique Mustang. Worse, many salespeople steered customers in the direction of the less expensive (but far more familiar) Mustang GT, leaving the SVO to play the role of the over-bred red-headed step child. While probably not a major factor in the car’s disappointing sales, the SVO racing effort that was to have featured the car floundered, leaving Ford in the unenviable position of “lose on Sunday, sell (nothing) on Monday.

Or, perhaps, the Mustang SVO wasn’t the failure that many consider it to be. Without the groundwork laid by the SVO, would Ford have constructed the later, higher-performance Mustang SVT Cobra and Cobra R? Would the automaker have embraced the expense behind creating cars like the 2012-2013 Boss 302? Just as the original Mustang SVO was to have tackled the BMW 3-Series, the Mustang Boss 302 with the higher-performance Laguna Seca package was allegedly developed with the focused goal of besting the BMW M3 around the Mustang’s namesake road course.

If the rumors are correct, Ford may be poised to introduce a new generation of forced-induction four-cylinder performance Mustangs with its next generation, due for launch in 2014. Should those rumors prove true, perhaps the concepts behind the 1984-1/2 Mustang SVO will prove to be successful after all.

As we discovered in researching last week’s Class of ’86 entry, the mid-1980s turbocharged Ford Mustang SVO grew out of Ford’s effort in making an IMSA racer out of the Mustang in 1980. However, the SVO wasn’t the only street vehicle to emerge from that effort, as we see from this 1980 Ford Mustang GT Enduro, one of three widebody street versions of the IMSA Mustangs used to promote Ford’s involvement in that racing series. Sure, it’s powered by a V-8, but in many other ways, it’s the Ur-SVO. From the seller’s description:

First time offered for public sale, 1 of 3 display cars for Ford’s “Motorsports Caravan,” national display tour, shown at races in early ’80s. S/N 002, Purchased 3/84, cover car Autoweek Feb 22, 1982. Dark Blue original all-custom IMSA bodywork with extractor hood and spoilers, Recaro seats, roll bar, custom S-W instrumentation, BBS 3-pc wheels, 302 4V HO, 5-spd, 4-wheel discs, Koni springs, shocks and sway bars, 3.73 axle. Immaculate condition with only 14K orig mi. Thousands of posters and postcards distributed of this car as part of the “Boss is Back” campaign in early ’80s. All documentation provided. THIS IS THE ONE!